Abstract:

The effect of transmit antenna scanning modulation on the output signal to noise ratio (SNR) loss in a noncooperative illuminator based bistatic radar is analyzed, which is mechanically scanned in azimuth. The rotating transmit antenna modulated directpath signal and target echo are described. The general expression of normalized filed pattern for widely used antennas is analyzed. Mathematical representations for directpath signal and target echo are proposed. Then, with respect to the match filter, the analytical expression for SNR loss of crossambiguity processing is derived. The relationship between SNR loss and SNRs of directpath channel and target echo channel is discussed by simulation. Some suggestions on range bins selection for target detection and the receivers’ intermediate frequency bandwidth are presented.